Information around the Black Forest in Germany

The "Höllental" (which means valley of hell)

The imposing valley is nine kilometres long, cut deep into the rocks
enclosed by slopes which are 600 metres high. A trip across the Black Forest
in this valley, which takes the form of a gorge several times, seemed to be
a "hellish" enterprise to our ancestors.

This applies especially to the narrowest part of the valley, the"Hirschsprung".
There is the statue of a bronze stag high up on a rock reminding people of
the animal that once escaped hunters with a gigantic leap across the gorge.

Until 200 years ago there was only a path for mules along a creek, the "Rotbach",
which was turned into a road later. Today the route across the "Höllental"
is an important road across the southern Black Forest to the Rhine valley
.

1770 Marie-Antoinette, the daughter of the Austrian emperor along with some
other daredevils, travelled to France to meet her bridegroom, the later King
Louis XVI, in France. At that time this area of the black Forest belonged
to Austria. After Marie-Antoinette had arrived safely in Freiburg she sat
down to a meal of Vienna Roast a la Black Forest. That was her last Austrian
dish for the rest of her life.

In 1887 the "Höllentalbahn" (train route) parallel to the
road was opened which connects "Freiburg" with "Donaueschingen".
It is quite famous because it has to overcome a gradient of 1 :18, because
it has to cover a difference of 441 m in height between "Hinterzarten"
and "Himmelreich". This part of the line is one of the most interesting
ones in Germany. It leads through 9 tunnels and numerous viaducts. The Ravenna
viaduct which is 222m long and

42 m high is the most imposing construction of all viaducts. You can find
more information about the technical problems the former generations had when
this viaduct was built in the chapter "Fantastic trips by car and train".

You can go on a 10-kilometre-long, fabulous hiking tour on the hunter trail
through the valley from "Hinterzarten" to"Himmelreich"
and back to "Hinterzarten by train.